Rockdale

FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT ROCKDALE - PAGE 5

Police Saturday arrested two men in connection with 22 burglaries on Friday night and early Saturday in the Connecticut Hills subdivision. Police filed 22 counts of felony charges of burglary to motor vehicles against Richard Morgan, 21, 514 E. 9th St., Lockport, and Brian Salinas, 20, of 937 Moen Ave., Rockdale. Police said the two suspects allegedly entered unlocked cars and took such items as cellular phones and radar detectors. Salinas was being held on $1,500 bond and Morgan was held on $1,000 bond in the Will County Jail on Monday.

Steven J. Rex, 21, of 823 Otis Ave., Rockdale, was charged Saturday with aggravated battery and criminal damage to property. Police said Rex was at the Strike 'N' Spare Bowling Alley, 811 Northern Drive, when he became angry at another man who had asked for Rex's girlfriend's phone number. Rex is accused of throwing a beer bottle at the victim and tackling him to the ground. The victim was not hit by the beer bottle and was not hurt. Both men reportedly fell into some band equipment, causing damage estimated at $2,000.

The admitted arsonist of a Crest Hill bowling alley owned by onetime Will County Coroner Robert Tezak was sentenced Thursday in federal court to 2 years in prison and placed on 5 years of probation. Karl Mackovic, 42, of Rockdale, was one of two men hired by Tezak to burn down the money-losing Galaxy Bowl in August 1987 for $3,000. Tezak pleaded guilty to the arson and other federal charges and is serving a nearly 13-year prison term.

A warehouse burned to the ground late Saturday. No one was injured in the blaze, which sent flames 100 feet into the sky, police said. The fire broke out in a warehouse, a former bowling alley, at 110 E. Webster St. shortly after 6 p.m. More than 100 firefighters from area departments, including Joliet, East Joliet, Plainfield and Rockdale, battled the blaze until 11 p.m. Nearby residents were evacuated as firefighters monitored a gas main...

Bartenders at four taverns were arrested last Friday after they allegedly sold beer to a minor recruited by police to check compliance with liquor laws. Charged with unlawful delivery of alcohol to a minor were Dennis Tokarz, 41, 4780 St. Joseph Creek Road, Lisle, who works at Bono's; Jessy Zavala, 26, 633 Margaret, Rockdale, an employee at the Hilton Hotel; Kristine Idarius, 37, 35 Harrison St., Oak Park, a bartender at the Hyatt Hotel; and Mark S. Leird, 5S066 Pebblewood Lane, near Naperville, who works in the Jaguar Lounge at the Holiday Inn. None of the four employees asked the minor to show proof of age, police said.

A Will County judge Friday found a southwest suburban Crest Hill man not guilty of second-degree murder in a fatal stabbing during a road rage dispute last year on an Interstate Highway 55 exit ramp. Circuit Judge Daniel Rozak ruled that evidence in the bench trial of Ronald Rice, 26, indicated that the man Rice stabbed appeared to be in a drunken rage and the aggressor in the confrontation. The ruling upset prosecutors and family members of Gary Walton, 28, of Rockdale, the man who was killed.

Will County sheriff's police say little is known about what appears to be human bone and bone fragments discovered Tuesday during archeological research at the future site of an underground pipeline in unincorporated Joliet Township. According to sheriff's police, Kevin P. McGowan of the University of Illinois and an assistant found the remains at about 10:15 a.m. The remains were situated several hundred yards northeast of Mound Road and Moen Avenue, on the outskirts of Rockdale.

The developer of a proposed racetrack in Joliet cleared another hurdle Wednesday night in hopes of getting $10 million in tax breaks for building the $100 million facility. The Lockport City Council endorsed expanding the Des Plaines River Valley Enterprise Zone to include the 923-acre site for the 75,000-seat track, which would be on Illinois Highway 53 between Schweitzer and Laraway Roads. The vote was 7-0, with one abstention, to support the expansion. Joliet, Romeoville and Will County have endorsed the request.